Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) announced on social media Friday that its weight loss drug, tirzepatide, has received approval from Chinese regulators, ramping up the competition with Danish rival Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO) in the critical Asian market.
The drugmaker’s shares climbed 2.2% in premarket trading.
Novo Nordisk's weight loss drug, Wegovy, was approved in China, the world's second-largest economy and the country with the highest estimated number of overweight or obese individuals, in June, sending its shares soaring.
Tirzepatide, the active ingredient in Eli Lilly's diabetes medication Mounjaro, which is also approved in China, is now part of their weight-loss drug Zepbound.
Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are both ramping up production to capture a share of the weight-loss market, projected to exceed $100 billion globally by the end of the decade. Both companies' obesity treatments fall under a class of drugs known as GLP-1 agonists, initially developed for diabetes.
GLP-1 drugs have demonstrated the ability to help patients lose up to 20% of their body weight on average, driving unprecedented demand.
A recent study suggested that Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide has been shown to lead to greater weight loss than semaglutide, the ingredient found in Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy. This study marks the first direct comparison of these two leading weight loss drugs.
According to new research published in JAMA Internal Medicine, Zepbound, approved for weight loss in late 2023, demonstrated an advantage, with patients losing around 21% of their body weight over 72 weeks, compared to about 15% for Wegovy patients after 68 weeks. Both medications are part of the GLP-1 class of drugs.
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) has also forayed into the weight-loss market. The company announced last week that it will proceed with the development of a once-daily version of its weight loss pill, danuglipron, following “encouraging” data from an ongoing early-stage study.
The company tested several once-daily formulations of the drug and identified one with “the most favorable profile” regarding safety and the body's reaction to the medication.